Faculty and Staff

Yuqian Zhang, 张宇乾, PhD

Yuqian Zhang, 张宇乾, PhD

Title
Resident Lecturer in Marine Conservation Governance
Location
Turks and Caicos
Pronouns
He/Him/His
Education
PhD in Fisheries and Wildlife
Michigan State University
Dual major in Environmental Science and Policy
Michigan State University
Certificate in Modeling Environment and Social Systems
Michigan State University
MSc in Environmental Science
Indiana University Bloomington
MPA in Public Policy
Indiana University Bloomington
BEng in Software Engineering
South China University of Technology
Teaching
SFS 3020
Marine Conservation Governance
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about

Faculty Profile

Trained as an interdisciplinary scholar and educator, Yuqian joins SFS with enthusiasm to promote experiential, international education and inspire the next generation of global citizens to think critically, act compassionately, and work collaboratively. He believes the purposes of education are to engage students in learning through experience and discovery, inspire students to question, think, and create for the greater good, as well as foster intellectual enrichment and life-long personal growth.

At the Turks and Caicos Island field station, Yuqian strives to understand and find solutions to marine conservation and sustainable challenges, through establishing community-based research and integrating natural, social, and data sciences. With extensive hands-on experience in translating complex big data into disciplinary and policy insights, Yuqian believes that high-quality science combined with data-rich understandings on the environment and society will better prepare us for sustainable challenges now and into the future.

Born and raised in China, Yuqian lived and studied in the US for nine years and traveled to more than 35 countries. Yuqian is adventurous and open-minded, with decent awareness of diversity, equity, and inclusion. In his free time, he is most likely to backpack and camp in mountains, dive in ocean, enjoy street food with friends, or drop into a CrossFit gym in a city.

Academics & Research

Research Interests

  • Coupled Human and Natural Systems
  • Sustainable Development
  • Biodiversity Conservation
  • Indigenous Knowledge and Community Development
  • Interdisciplinary Studies

Professional Affiliations

Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network
Ecological Society of America
British Ecological Society
International Association for Landscape Ecology - North America
outputs

Publications

Optimization of coal power phaseout pathways ensuring energy security: Evidence from Shandong, China’s largest coal power province. (2024)

Wu, D., Zhang, Y., Liu, B., Wang, K., Wang, Z., & Kang, J. (2024). Energy Policy, 192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2024.114180

seesus: a social, environmental, and economic sustainability classifier for Python. (2024)

Cai, M., Li, Y., Colbry, D., Frans, V. F., & Zhang, Y. (2024). Journal of Open-Source Software, 9(96), 6244. https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.06244

Physical and virtual nutrient flows in global telecoupled agricultural trade networks. (2023)

Chen, X., Hou, Y., Kastner, T., Liu, L., Zhang, Y., Yin, T., Li, M., Malik, A., Li, M., Thorp K., Han, S., Liu, Y., Muhammad, T., Liu, J., & Li, Y. (2023). Nature Communications, 14(1), 2391. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38094-4

SDGdetector: an R-based text mining tool for quantifying efforts toward Sustainable Development Goals. (2023)

Li, Y., Frans, V. F., Song, Y., Cai, M., Zhang, Y., & Liu, J. (2023). Journal of Open Source Software, 8(84), 5124. https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.05124

Global decadal assessment of life below water and on land. (2023)

Zhang, Y., Li, Y., & Liu, J. (2023).  Iscience, 26(4). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.106420

Integrated SDM database: enhancing the realism of species distribution models to facilitate decision-making on the range-expanding New Zealand sea lion. (2021)

Frans, V., Augé, A., Fyfe, J., Zhang, Y., McNally, N., Edelhoff, H., Balkenhol, N., & Engler, J. (2021). Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 13: 243-261. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13736

Socio-Environmental Sensing to Monitor the Impacts of Large-Scale Infrastructure Development. (2021)

Li, Y., Zhang, Y., Tiffany, L., Chen, R., Cai, M., & Liu, J. (2021). Environmental Science and Policy, 124: 527-540. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2021.07.020

Do Protected Areas Matter? A Systematic Review of the Social and Ecological Impacts of the Establishment of Protected Areas. (2020)

Ma, B., Zhang, Y., Hou, Y., & Wen, Y. (2020). International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(19), 7259.
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17197259

Socioeconomic and Ecological Direct and Spillover Effects of China’s Giant Panda Nature Reserves. (2020)

Ma, B., Zhang, Y., Huang, Y., & Wen, Y. (2020). Forest Policy and Economics, 121, 102313. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2020.102313

Does Crop Rotation Enhance Groundwater Health? A Review of the Winter Wheat Fallow Policy in the North China Plain. (2019)

Lei, M., Zhang, Y., Dang, Y., Kong, X., & Yao, J. (2019). Water, 11(11), 2416. https://doi.org/10.3390/w11112416